


Prompt: Worry and Responsibility

by EssayOfThoughts



Series: MCU Maximoff Oneshots [136]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Character Study, Gen, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-03 20:10:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12153924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts
Summary: Peter is a small boy, and scrawny. He reminds Wanda of some of the kids from the streets - small and skinny, in clothes that seemed perpetually baggy. He’s nothing like  them, though. For one, he is a spoiled American, with all attendant legal benefits. For two, he can go toe-to-toe with at least one Avenger. Ex-venger.Whatever an exiled captain, a frozen Bucky Barnes, and all attendant heroes counts as.





	Prompt: Worry and Responsibility

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wandasmaximoffs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wandasmaximoffs/gifts).



> Written for a prompt on tumblr, readable [Here](http://essayofthoughts.tumblr.com/post/165592622240/can-i-prompt-the-wanda-n-peter-bro-ing-out-pls-w).

**i.**  
Wanda steps off the Quinjet and restrains herself from slapping the semi-smug look from Tony Stark’s face. For once, it is only  _semi-_ smug, so he’s probably actually taking things seriously for once. Instead, she curls her hands into loose fists at her sides and nods at him.

“Where is he?” she asks.

“Nice to see you too,” he replies. “He’s downstairs. And whatever you do, don’t leave the building.”

Wanda snorts. As though she could.

 

* * *

 

 **ii.**  
Peter is a small boy, and scrawny. He reminds Wanda of some of the kids from the streets - small and skinny, in clothes that seemed perpetually baggy. He’s nothing like  them, though. For one, he is a spoiled American, with all attendant legal benefits. For two, he can go toe-to-toe with at least one Avenger. Ex-venger.

Whatever an exiled captain, a frozen Bucky Barnes, and all attendant heroes counts as.

Peter is perched up in the corner of a sofa, tapping at a tablet. He doesn’t look up as Wanda walks in, just starts talking at a hundred miles an hour in a way that only reminds Wanda more of the children of Novi Grad. “Mr. Stark! Great new formation, the code is-”

He stops dead, his expression almost scared, eyes fixed on her. Wanda lifts both hands, palms open towards him.

“Not here to fight,” she says. “Though I  _would_  like to punch Stark.”

 

* * *

 

 **iii.**  
He’s a tentative boy. Almost scared - almost, but not quite. “Why are you here?” he asks.  _“How?_ You’re supposed to be in the Raft.”

It takes more confidence than Wanda has left to smile at that. Instead she says, “Did you think that Steve would just leave us there?”

The tablet is set down, his fingertips tapping steadily over the blank plastic. “Sooo,” he says. “Why  _are_ you here?”

This, Wanda knows, is the part where she must tread carefully.

 

* * *

 

 **iv.**  
“You’ve been in the news,” she says. “Being a hero.”

It is hard, these days, not to spit the word “hero.”.

Peter shrugs. “Yeah. So?”

“Will you listen to me?” she asks. “Let me say what I have seen and what I worry about, and then answer?” He eyes her, warily. “I will not insult you, I may insult Stark. But will you listen?”

Slowly, warily, he nods.

 

* * *

 

 **v.**  
She explains. She speaks of Leipzig, and the boy dressed in blue and red and black and adorned with spiderwebs flying out of nowhere. She speaks of a  _boy_ , a child who should not be amongst Avengers, a child who has not signed the Accords, is not even mentioned on them. She speaks of a child who has tried to do good, who has done good, who even in all his destruction has done everything in his power to save and preserve lives.

She speaks of what she has seen, and says, “Why?”

Peter blinks. “Why... what. Why do I do it, why did I do those things, why was I so  _stupid_ , why didn’t I listen to Mr. Stark-” he’s running his hands through his hair, speaking at a million miles an hour.

Wanda’s hand is gentle on his wrist. “Why did you join the battle at Leipzig? Why do you continue your battles here? Do you do it because Stark asks you to? Because you think he wants you to?” Peter is frowning, a small crease between his brows. “Have you even signed the Accords? Or do you exist in a loophole because you are underage and American?”

His frown does not uncrease. His hands go from tapping over plastic to folding over each other, pulling the sleeves of his hoodie down over his hands. “It’s complicated,” he says. 

Wanda offers a gentle smile. “You listened to me,” she says. “I will listen to you.”

 

* * *

 

 **vi.**  
He explains how he sees it: he went to Leipzig, even without knowing all that was going on, because it was  _Mr. Stark_  who asked, Mr. Stark who made him a new suit. He went to Leipzig and knew he was safe because Mr. Stark would make sure Ross did not do anything against him. Knew Ross would never learn his alias, let alone his real name, not from Mr. Stark. He fights on...

“Maybe because I wanted to make Mr. Stark proud? But no one was listening to me, he never told me that he was looking into it, so no one  _cared.”_  He looks at her, eyes bright and earnest. “And if no one else cares then no one else is going to do anything. And... I couldn’t just let that happen.” His hands flex in his lap, fingers folding over each other. “I have powers, real, actual powers. And if I don’t use them, or I use them to hurt people... what does that make me? If people are in trouble, and I could help... I can’t not. I have these powers. I have the ability to help. If I don’t-”

He looks at Wanda, looks her in the eye and swallows. “I have a responsibility to help. To at least  _try._  Do you... you know what I mean, right?”

Some part of Wanda wants to disillusion this young man. Some part of her wants to tell him never to rely on Stark, that Stark’s protection means nothing, that Stark rushes headlong into things without thinking of the consequences as much as any of them. Wants to tell him that Tony Stark would sell him out in three seconds if he thought it was for the boy’s best, if he thought it would  _help._  She thinks of all of Stark’s little betrayals alongside all of his small helping hands - hidden messages to halfway around the world, warning them when Ross would near even though he owed them no debt, though he had reason enough to hate them as they did him.

She looks at Peter and half-sees herself and Pietro, stood before List as he made his offer to them all. She looks at Peter and sees what he is, not an echo of the past, but the boy in the present. A boy let down, a boy standing up, a young man who saw that no one else would help and tried and failed, and was told he should not have tried at all... and who tried again, despite it all.

“I understand,” she says, and holds her tongue on all else.

“Why are you here, anyway?” he says. “I mean..  _how?_  And if you weren’t in the Raft then where  _were_  you?”

Wanda smiles. “Safe,” she says. “And for all our fights, for all I have blamed him for much, Stark does not want to see any Avenger harmed if he can prevent it. When I asked to speak to you, said I was worried for you, he understood.” It burns her tongue to say it, to admit what she has learned since Ultron, learned from seeing the man close up, and not his actions at a distance. “He worries too. He is just  _terrible_  at showing it.”

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments!


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